This is a film of slant lights and gray finickiness that always recalls, in every slight gesture, both the inconclusive happy world outside and that of the youthful past, even as it threatens every moment to erupt into absolute darkness and hostility.

The film is a life lesson about the transformative power of art (arts education has never been more endangered than it is today) and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America, its "children."

Since the beginning of the new year, I have heard again and again about the new work of Austrian film maker Michael Haneke, whose signature works includes "Funny Game," "The White Ribbon," and "Cache."

So just when legend Quentin Tarantino decided this was his lucky year, Paul Thomas Anderson, Peter Jackson, Kathryn Bigelow, Tom Hooper, and more just felt in their bones as well -- that 2013 was going to give them that longing prize. Bad timing.